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FILE - This Jan. 18, 2012 file photo shows Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs speaking during a news conference at the team's practice facility in Owings Mills, Md. A person familiar with the injury says Suggs has torn his Achilles tendon while working out in Arizona and may miss the 2012 season. The Associated Press' NFL Defensive Player of the Year is expected to have surgery next week, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the injury have not been released. The Ravens issued a statement Thursday, May 3, 2012, saying they are in contact with Suggs, he will see a specialist next week, and "we'll know more at that time." (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, FIle)

NFL Notes: Ravens' Suggs could be out for year

published Thursday, May 3, 2012

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs will have surgery for a partially torn Achilles tendon, an injury he insists will not keep him sidelined for the entire 2012 season.

The injury occurred in Arizona while Suggs was practicing for an upcoming conditioning test, he said Thursday in a text message.

Suggs initially thought it was a sprain but a doctor determined that it was a partial tear, he said.

The Ravens issued a statement Thursday saying: “We are in contact with Terrell. He will see a specialist early next week, and we’ll know more at that time.”

General manager Ozzie Newsome said, “We’re just waiting for Terrell to see a specialist on Tuesday, and then we’ll go from there.”

Suggs, the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2011, is expected to have surgery as soon as next week. A torn Achilles tendon usually requires a lengthy rehabilitation program, but Suggs has no intention of sitting out the year.

Asked if he will play in 2012, he responded, “’’Absolutely,” and projected his return to occur in late October or November.

The injury is a major blow to a stout defense that also features linebacker Ray Lewis, safety Ed Reed and tackle Haloti Ngata. Suggs had 14 sacks last season, forced a franchise-record seven fumbles and received his fifth Pro Bowl invitation in helping the Ravens win the AFC North with a 12-4 record.

Suggs has played nine seasons for Baltimore and has missed only three games, in 2009 with a knee injury. In six of those nine years he started every game and is the Ravens career sack leader with 82½.

COUNSEL AGREES WITH NFL’S FINDINGS ON BOUNTIES: At New York, a former U.S. attorney hired by the NFL to evaluate its investigation of the New Orleans Saints’ bounty program said Thursday the evidence shows players received payments for hits on targeted opponents.

Mary Jo White said in a conference call that evidence in the league’s investigation of the three-year pay-for-pain system provided “an unusually strong record” and came from people with “firsthand knowledge and corroborated by documentation.”

When asked twice whether any players actually were paid for hits, White confirmed they were without going into specifics. She added that most of the money in the bounty scheme was provided by the players.

“Without them, there wouldn’t have been a bounty program,” she said.

White, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was asked last December by the NFL to examine the evidence.

“The factual basis for the sanctions is quite strong in my opinion,” she said. “You must safeguard the identity of people that provide information to you in order to protect them, and also to encourage others in the future to come forward with evidence of wrongdoing. This is certainly not a one-on-one, he-said, she-said record at all. This is multiple independent sources.”

White saw no merit in complaints from the players’ union that it had not received, “detailed or specific evidence from the league of specific players’ involvement in an alleged pay-to-injure program.”

“It is no defense that coaches were involved in it, this was an individual responsibility each player has and each coach has. Each player had the responsibility to say no to this program and they didn’t do that. They obviously had the option to report this to the union and they didn’t do that.”

SEAU’S LOVED ONES SAW NO WARNING SIGNS: At San Diego, Those who knew and loved Junior Seau say they didn’t see this coming.

“This is not anything I thought he would ever do,” former San Diego Chargers safety Miles McPherson said.

Like many of Seau’s friends, McPherson was still trying to comprehend the death of the former star NFL linebacker the day after his body was found inside his home in suburban Oceanside with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. The San Diego County medical examiner ruled the death a suicide on Thursday.

“Junior is a warrior. He played 20 years in the NFL as a linebacker. You have to be a warrior. Warriors conquer problems they face and they run at them,” McPherson said Thursday.

McPherson, now the pastor at the Rock Church in San Diego, said that’s why Seau’s death is so puzzling.

Seau’s ex-wife, Gina, told The Associated Press that while Seau sustained concussions during his playing career, she had no idea if they somehow contributed to his death.

McPherson also said he didn’t know if concussions would have contributed to the death of Seau, who was known for his ferocious tackles followed by celebratory fist pumps.

“There is no football player — maybe a punter — that has not had multiple concussions, I would guess,” McPherson said.

SPARANO CONFIDENT IN TEBOW’S WILDCAT ABILITY: At Florham Park, N.J., new Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano knows a few things about the wildcat formation and sees Tim Tebow as an effective player in it.

Sparano brought the wildcat to the forefront as head coach in Miami, mainly with halfback Ronnie Brown running it. But Brown was not much of a threat to throw.

“There was very little element of the pass involved with that,” Sparano said Thursday of using the wildcat with the Dolphins. “Obviously with Tim, that is a different element. The element of being able to throw the football out of that brings an entirely different dynamic.

“Whether we run the wildcat or a version of it or something else, I am not going to tie myself down to one thing. Sure, all those things are on the table, that is the great thing about having a player that has the flexibility that Tim has.”